In the arts mecca of New York City, subway buskers are often overqualified. But they’re not usually world-class jazz singers with the lungs and charisma of old-school soul stars. Accompanied only by a pianist, watch Gregory Porter perform “Be Good (Lion’s Song)” on a vintage subway car in downtown Brooklyn.

Filmed with WBGO.

Poolside on a picnic table under the blazing California sun at the Ace Hotle in Palm Springs, watch Cayucas perform the bittersweet single “High School Lover.”

Filmed with KCRW.

Watch the Ebene Quartetdelve deep at a Brooklyn bookstore to play the dark-hued second movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 string quartet.

Playing to a sea of empty red seats at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., watch Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum and two backing vocalists untangle a web of words in a quiet but complex acoustic version of “Ocean Roar.”

(Mito Habe-Evans/NPR) via Instagram

Watch The Civil Wars, now on hiatus due to “internal discord,” perform “Kingdom Come” in a field, from KEXP.

Usually, Allen Stone performs his bluesy soul with the aid of a crack band, but here, we got the 25-year-old belter to perform his single “Sleep” — usually a big, rollicking rave-up — with just a guitarist for backup.

Photo: (Mito Habe-Evans/NPR) via Instagram

Singer Carla Morrison has already enchanted audiences in her native Mexico with her sweet, timeless voice and unabashedly lovelorn lyrics. Watch her give a special performance at The High Line, an elevated park in New York City.

Watch Micachu & The Shapes complement the sun-dappled woods of Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park with “Holiday,” a disarmingly plainspoken song with ragged beauty.

For a few minutes amid the bustle and rush of the 2012 Sasquatch Music Festival, we were able to stop, breathe and enjoy Cloud Cult’s jaw-dropping rendition of its song “That Man Jumped Out the Window.”

Watch the Brooklyn trio We Are Augustines play a stripped-down cover of Crooked Fingers’ “New Drink for the Old Drunk” outside the stunning Gorge Amphitheater.